XV
TELEMACHUS RETURNS

PALLAS ATHENE, meanwhile, went to the broad vale of Lace-
daemon to warn King Odysseus' noble son that it was time for
him to return, and to hasten his departure.

She found Telemachus and Prince Peisistratus sleeping in the
great Menelaus' portico. Nestor's son, at all events, was lying
sound asleep; but Telemachus was enjoying no rest, for anxiety
on his father's behalf kept him wakeful all the livelong night.
The bright-eyed goddess came up to his bed. Telemachus/ she
said, 'it is wrong of you to linger abroad and leave your pro-
perty unguarded with such a rabble in the place. They might
well share out and eat up all you have, and so make your journey
futile. Urge your gallant host, Menelaus, to let you go at once,
if you wish to find your noble mother still in the palace. For her
father and brothers are already pressing her to marry Eury-
machus, who outdoes all the rest other Suitors in generosity and
keeps raising his bid for her hand. There is also the danger that
she might carry off some of your own things from the house
without your permission. You know what a woman's disposi-
tion is. She likes to bring riches to the house of the man who is
marrying her, while, as for her former husband and the children
she has borne him, she never gives him a thought once he is
dead, nor inquires after them. So when you reach home I should
like to see you take the lead and hand over the whole household
to whichever woman-servant you trust most, until heaven
sends you a wife worthy of your rank. And here's another
matter for you to digest. The leading spirits among the Suitors
are lying in ambush in the straits between Ithaca and the rugged
coast of Samos, intent on murdering you before you can get
home. Not that I think they will succeed. No; sooner than that,
the earth will close over some of these love-lom gentlemen who